Almoran, who was now exulting in the prospect of success that had exceeded his hopes, and who supposed the possession of Almeida before the end of the next hour, was as certain as that the next hour would arrive, suddenly entered the apartment; but upon discovering Hamet, he started back astonished and disappointed.  Hamet stood unmoved; and regarded him with a fixed and steady look, that at once reproached and confounded him.  ‘What treachery,’ said Almoran, ’has been practised against me?  What has brought thee to this place; and how hast thou gained admittance?’ ‘Against thy peace,’ said Hamet, ’no treachery has been practised, but by thyself.  By those arts in which thy vices have employed the powers of darkness, I have been brought hither; and by those arts I have gained admittance:  thy form which they have imposed upon me, was my passport; and by the restoration of my own, I have detected and disappointed the fraud, which the double change was produced to execute.  Almeida, whom, as Hamet, thou couldst teach to hate thee, it is now impossible that, as Almoran, thou shouldst teach to love.’

Almeida, who perceived the storm to be gathering which the next moment would burst upon the head of Hamet, interposed between them, and addressed each of them by turns; urging Hamet to be silent, and conjuring Almoran to be merciful.  Almoran, however, without regarding Almeida, or making any reply to Hamet, struck the ground with his foot, and the messengers of death, to whom the signal was familiar, appeared at the door.  Almoran then commanded them to seize his brother, with a countenance pale and livid, and a voice that was broken by rage.  Hamet was still unmoved; but Almeida threw herself at the feet of Almoran, and embracing his knees was about to speak, but he broke from her with sudden fury:  ‘If the world should sue,’ said he, ’I would spurn it off.  There is no pang that cunning can invent, which he shall not suffer:  and when death at length shall disappoint my vengeance, his mangled limbs shall be cast out unburied, to feed the beasts of the desert and the fowls of heaven.’  During this menace, Almeida sunk down without signs of life; and Hamet struggling in vain for liberty to raise her from the ground, she was carried off by some women who were called to her assistance.

In this awful crisis, Hamet, who felt his own fortitude give way, looked up, and though he conceived no words, a prayer ascended from his heart to heaven, and was accepted by Him, to whom our thoughts are known while they are yet afar off.  For Hamet, the fountain of strength was opened from above; his eye sparkled with confidence, and his breast was dilated by hope.  He commanded the guard that were leading him away to stop, and they implicitly obeyed; he then stretched out his hand towards Almoran, whose